Saving the Guardian
by neon rose
Summary: When something horrible has happened in the past can Knuckles and his counterpart guardian ever forgive each other?
1. a timely rescue

A/N: Yes I know I don't own Sonic X or any of the characters okay? And Knuckles is now living in the same house as Sonic, why you ask, because I say so. So Nyah! ^_-  
  
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  
  
A lime green echidna stood in the middle of a thick glass tube, she glared up at her captor irritated.  
  
"Don't look so unhappy my little echidna friend, all I want for you to do is to tell me where the other emeralds are, then I'll let you go." The doctor said looking down at his prisoner. She appeared to consider this for a moment and she tapped on the glass, he bent down to he was face to face with the creature. She stuck her middle finger up at him and smacked the glass with her fists.  
  
"Fine, be that way. I'll just torture it out of you." Dr. Eggman said, his moustache twitching with anticipation. The echidna's eyes widened in terror, she sighed and closed her eyes, she couldn't believe that she was going to have to do this.  
  
Many miles away Knuckles jumped up in the air in shock.  
  
"What in the name of Chaos?!" He exclaimed rubbing his skull.  
  
"Don't sound so damn surprised Knuckles it's me." A female voice ran through his mind. Knuckles rolled his eyes then closed them to reply.  
  
"What do you want, I thought I had gotten away from you by getting here." He replied agitated.  
  
"Hah bloody hah Knuckles. As much as I hate to say it... I... I need your help okay?" the female voice snapped back just as annoyed.  
  
"Give me one reason why I should help you" Knuckles shot back mentally.  
  
"Because Eggman has captured me, disabled my powers and is about to torture me because I won't give him the location of the emeralds. So, indirectly it's your fault for letting the emeralds get loose again. Now, GET ME THE HELL OUTTA HERE!" The voice screamed in his mind.  
  
"Fine, fine; I'll see what I can do." Knuckles replied silently as he closed the mental link between them.  
  
Knuckles walked through the house until he came to where the tornado was located, luckily for him Sonic and Tails were already there.  
  
"Hey Sonic, are you bored?" Knuckles smirked.  
  
"So who is this girl then?" Sonic whispered to Knuckles as they both snuck through Eggman's base.  
  
"It's complicated." Knuckles replied quietly.  
  
"Try me." Sonic said rolling his eyes.  
  
"Every Guardian is picked at random, we all have the mark of a crescent moon; anyway, also chosen is a... a mate for the Guardian, also with a moon." Knuckles said rolling his eyes.  
  
"Well if you two are lovers, why have we never met her before?" Sonic frowned creeping through the corridor.  
  
"We don't get on. At all. She's annoying, irresponsible, rude, REALLY irresponsible and incredibly childish." Knuckles said with a growl, "but dispute that, we can't risk Eggman using her to find the emeralds; hence the rescue mission." He added.  
  
"Hey, Knux, is that her?" Sonic said peering around a door. Knuckles peeked around the corner to see the lime green echidna sitting dejectedly in the middle of a glass tube.  
  
"Yes." Knuckles sighed, seeing that there was no one in the room he walked in and stood before the green echidna.  
  
"Glass? That's all that was keeping you here? Are you deliberately annoying me now or are you just a lazy ass?" Knuckles demanded. The irate green echidna's reply was lost through the thick glass (A/N: but it probably wasn't PG-13 anyway ^_^) but the general gist of it was along the lines of "break the glass"  
  
Knuckles rolled his eyes, being able to lip-read her answer perfectly; he drew back his fist and shattered the thick glass.  
  
"It's about damn time!" the green echidna growled.  
  
"Why didn't you break the glass yourself?" Knuckles asked again.  
  
"That Eggman put this band on my head, I use my powers with it on and he tied my hands together." The green echidna grumbled.  
  
"Powers?" Sonic asked as Knuckles removed the headband in question.  
  
"She's telekinetic." Knuckles shrugged.  
  
"And also able to talk for myself." She added throwing a venomous glare at Knuckles, she split the rope binding her hands together on some of the shattered glass.  
  
"I'm Tai." She smiled holding out a hand to Sonic.  
  
"Sonic. We need to get out of here before Eggman finds us." The cobalt hedgehog nodded.  
  
"You mean I can't hunt him down and kill him?" Tai said annoyed.  
  
"Sorry to disappoint." Knuckles said grabbing her by her wrist and dragging her out the door. The lime green echidna narrowed her eyes and all the control panels in the room blew up in a great fireball.  
  
"Tai..." Knuckles said warningly as he dragged her down the corridor, "as much as you hate Eggman that is *not* going to help us escape stealthily."  
  
"So?" Tai muttered unable to stop the stronger red echidna from dragging her by her collar.  
  
"AWWW!" Amy screamed happily as she threw her arms around the new echidna.  
  
"But you're so pretty, I never expected you to be!" Amy giggled stepping back to have a good look at Tai.  
  
Tai stood a little taller than Amy, but still shorter than Knuckles. Short green braids of quills adorned her head hanging down in front of startlingly, blue eyes. They sparkled like blue diamonds in a pale blue, contrasting greatly to her green fur. She was wearing a long blue jumper that almost verged on a dress, the neck of it hung widely exposing lean shoulders as the jumper struggled to cling onto the edges of her shoulders. The sleeves of the pale blue jumper were long and slender green gloveless fingers peeked out from underneath them. Oddly enough her jumper displayed a crescent moon, which was curving up as opposed to down like Knuckles' one.  
  
"What a pretty design!" Amy cooed looking closer at it.  
  
"Yeah, the damn thing bleaches it's way through any clothing; it's so people can always tell I'm a guardian." Tai smiled embarrassed at Amy's enthusiasm.  
  
"Yeah some guardian you are." Knuckles muttered.  
  
"If you have something to say to me Knuckles," Tai began coldly as she turned to face the red echidna in question, "say it to my face."  
  
"I said," He began darkly, "some guardian you are." Knuckles said emphasising every word,  
  
"This coming from the echidna who's let the emerald shatter countless times, and is, in fact the reason why I was damn well taken prisoner by that... monster." Tai spat after mentioning Eggman, as if the very presence of him in conversation turned her mouth sour.  
  
"How very lady-like." Knuckles said with a sneer.  
  
"How very chauvinistic." Tai growled back.  
  
"What's the deal with them?" Chris whispered to Sonic.  
  
"No idea, Knuckles just said that they didn't get on." Sonic shrugged bemused, he had never seen Knuckles act like this.  
  
"Whatever Captain Gullible, I don't have time for you and your stupid reasoning; I'm going back and taking Eggman down once and for all." Tai said coldly as she turned to the door.  
  
"No way." Knuckles said grabbing her wrist and pinning her to the wall. "We know by now that your "go in all guns blazing" approach never works." Knuckles ordered, glaring at Tai's blue eyes.  
  
"There is no "we" Knuckles." She growled shoving Knuckles away, "There's me and then there's you, and you are less than pond scum." She added venomously but none the less stalked off upstairs as opposed to leaving the house. Knuckles growled to himself, punched a wall and stormed off into the kitchen.  
  
"I feel sorry for Knuckles." Cream said softly.  
  
"Why?" Amy asked confused.  
  
"Because miss Tai is so upset at Knuckles and he loves her so." Cream sighed sadly.  
  
"What? They were at each others throats a minute ago!" Chris said shocked.  
  
"But he looks at her as if he loves her, didn't you see how upset at what she said? They must have had a big fight years ago..." Cream said quietly speaking wiser than her years.  
  
A/N: Hee hee, well I hope any Blue and Cole fans will enjoy this fic just as much, I was toying with this idea towards the end of Feeling Blue and I hope you'll all like it. 


	2. There's always a catch isn't there

A/N: Thanks to Shadow'sObsesser and robinsama for reviewing, they get double chocolate chip cookies ^_^ Also as a note Tai's name is pronounced "Thai" as in Thailand.  
  
And the rest of you get a big helping of "sorry I don't own Sonic X"  
  
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  
  
"Okay fine, a one handed cartwheel!" Amy said indignantly.  
  
"Okay, jeez fine just give me a minute will ya?" Tai replied pulling her arms into her sweater.  
  
"What's going on?" Knuckles asked walking in the room.  
  
"Amy and Tai are having a competition to see who's better at..." Sonic started but words seemed to fail him as Tai pulled off her jumper leaving her standing there in only black hotpants and a shot black crop-top. She threw her jumper over the sofa and grinned at Amy. Knuckles growled at Sonic, the fool was practically drooling at Tai!  
  
"Gymnastics?" Knuckles said with a hint of a growl in his voice.  
  
"Uh, yeah. Heh." Sonic said realising that he had been gawking. Knuckles sniffed irritatedly and looked back at Tai; she folded one arm behind her back and after Amy proceeded to do a one-handed cartwheel. Knuckles watched as she moved with fluid grace that came from years of intense physical training, he knew that Tai could do more than pathetic one handed cartwheels, she was obviously just humouring Amy. He watched her straighten up triumphantly, Knuckles allowed his eyes to flick over her body quickly; she had definitely changed shape in the years since he had last seen her, she was admittedly quite beautiful. She noticed him and threw him a death glare; he returned it and walked past her.  
  
"Stop being childish Tai." He shouted back to her, not even having to turn around to know that she was glaring at him.  
  
"Only if you stop being a jerk Knuckles." She retorted annoyed.  
  
"Wow, are you two always like that?" Sonic asked in wonder.  
  
"I don't know what you mean." Tai said throwing her jumper back on and stalking off again.  
  
"I think I see what Cream means." Amy said with a slight smirk on her face.  
  
"This telekinesis power is incredible!" Professor Chuck said as he watched the chess-piece spin slowly in the air. Amy opened up the trapdoor to Professor Chuck's laboratory she smiled with relief at finding Tai there.  
  
"Here you are, I've been looking everywhere for you!" Amy smiled standing up.  
  
"Hey Amy." Tai replied from where she sat cross-legged on Professor Chuck's desk.  
  
"Can you make it spin the other way?" Chuck asked looking over at Tai, she nodded and the chess piece stopped momentarily and then began to spin the opposite direction.  
  
"Hey Tai, I just wanted to ask you something." Amy said tentatively.  
  
"Shoot." She said with a smile.  
  
"How come you hate Knuckles so much?" Amy asked curiously. The chess-piece exploded sending splinters everywhere, Tai bit her lip and took a deep breath.  
  
"Because," she said slowly, "he is a traitor, a backstabber and a liar." Tai growled, her eyes narrowing.  
  
"What did he do?" Amy asked in wonder.  
  
"I don't want to talk about it Amy, it's not a nice memory." She said through gritted teeth.  
  
"I'm sorry Tai, I didn't mean to upset you." Amy apologised, "We're still friends though... aren't we?" Amy asked hopefully.  
  
"Sure." The green echidna smiled; there was no reason for Knuckles to stop her making friends she reasoned.  
  
Knuckles' chest rose and fell gently in sleep along with a peaceful expression settled on his face, a shadow crossed over his face and he frowned. The owner of the shadow stepped to the right quickly and Knuckles was once again bathed in moonlight and he rolled over back into peaceful sleep.  
Tai let her breath go slowly, that had been a close one, she could see no way out of the room; Sonic and Tails were asleep in front of the TV which unfortunately was turned off and Knuckles just had to make his bed in the only pathway between her and the door.  
  
"Can't go 'round him, can't go under him, can't go through him, hafta go over him." Tai thought sarcastically to herself. She knew she couldn't just jump over Knuckles, he would feel the breeze and wake up, and he was an extremely light sleeper after all. She bit her lip, which would mean she would have to use her powers to levitate herself over him and at this close range that would mean that Knuckles would momentarily hear her thoughts.  
  
"Okay," she thought to herself. "Calm, quiet..." she silenced her thoughts and floated up in the air, "good... No! I'm thinking! Shush..." She panicked mentally and landed softly on the other side of Knuckles. She held her breath and watched a frown pass lightly over Knuckles' face, not daring to breathe she crept towards the door and let herself out. Quietly easing the door shut she dashed off into the distance and towards Eggman's base.  
  
At the soft sound of the door shutting Knuckles' eyes slid open, he sat up and looked around the room; nothing seemed to be amiss. Sonic snorted loudly and rolled over in his sleep. "Stupid hedgehog, waking me up..." Knuckles grumbled mentally. He laid back to go to sleep again but something still didn't feel right, he got up and wandered into the room that Tai was sleeping in with Amy and Cream. His eyes flicked over the beds, all occupied and with sleeping forms in them. Knuckles frowned at Tai's bed, something still didn't seem right; he crept over and found the bed to be full of pillows. His eyes widened, she was gone!  
  
He dashed out the front door, slamming it behind him loudly and ran off in the same direction that Tai had gone in minutes earlier.  
  
"What in the name of Chaos is she thinking?! Is the girl trying to get herself killed?" Knuckles thought angrily as he ran faster than ever to Eggman's base, but he already knew what she was thinking, revenge. When Knuckles arrived at Eggman's base he skidded to a halt, there appeared to be a full-scale war being waged.  
  
"Tai!" Knuckles screamed at the top of his voice, and then he saw her. Tai stood in the middle of a circle of robots, she was blasting them up with massive releases of psychic energy, Knuckles could see that they were closing in on her and soon she would be defenceless. Knuckles dashed in her direction destroying every robot in his path as he did so, as he got closer to her he could see the blood starting to trickle out of her nose and wounds beginning to appear on her arms and legs.  
  
Knuckles grabbed Tai and dived underground, he felt her kick and squirm from where she was held, under his right arm. Eventually she stopped struggling as he dug through the earth as fast as he could, Knuckles suddenly burst through the surface and ran back as fast as he could to Chris' house.  
  
"No, please be okay." He said under his breath as he dashed through the front door, shoved everything off the table and laid her down there.  
  
"What on...?" Sonic grumbled annoyed at being woken up. "What happened?!" He gasped seeing Tai bleeding from her nose, numerous cuts and stab wounds on her arms and legs and huge bruises swelling up.  
  
"She snuck out, over used her powers. NOW GET ME SOME FREAKING BANDAGES!" Knuckles shouted and Sonic zipped off returning a moment later with a full medical kit. Knuckles grabbed it off him and began tending to Tai's wounds as fast as he could.  
  
Half an hour later, everyone was up and gathered around Knuckles and Tai, he straightened up finally and sighed.  
  
"It's lucky I got to her soon, she should be fine, she just needs rest." Knuckles said softly as he picked Tai up and carried her upstairs to sleep in a bed.  
  
"I don't understand Knuckles, how did this happen?" the Professor asked, catching up to the red echidna.  
  
"I'm no expert but when she uses her powers, it uses up some kind of energy in her body, when she doesn't use her powers enough she gets sick, but when she uses them too much, like tonight her body just falls apart." Knuckles sighed, "Anywhere weak on her body, basically anywhere that she's been injured before, breaks apart. Old wounds open up again, bruises re-appear, you get the point. Normally the odd cut here and there wouldn't be anything to worry about, but Tai has had an eventful and dangerous life so far; individually it's never anything serious, but added together like this and it could kill her easily." Knuckles said putting her down in her bed and brushing a stray lock of quills away.  
  
"Does she know this?" Chuck asked curiously.  
  
"Yes, that's why she's being so stupid. She knows it could and probably would kill her, she wants to destroy Eggman at whatever cost, even her own life. She's so bent on revenge that she doesn't see the danger in front of her!" Knuckles growled angry at Tai's idiocy. Chuck decided not to ask what it was that Tai wanted revenge for, he didn't feel like annoying the small red echidna, nor the green one when she awoke. As he silently left the room Knuckles pulled up a chair and sat by Tai's bedside.  
  
"Why must you torture me like this Tai?" Knuckles sighed softly to himself. 


	3. Echo of the past

A/N: Sorry for the long delay ^_^;; thanks to Shadow'sObsesser, robinsama and Flare the mechanic for reviewing, you all get... um... a pack of cards ^_^. And a notice saying that I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog. This chapter is a bit heavy and angsty by the way but it's an important plot point.  
  
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  
  
Tai groaned and opened her eyes, she shut them with a jerk and her entire body complained at the movement. She opened her eyes again and blinked vigorously until her eyes adjusted. Tai looked over to the left to see Knuckles dozing softly in a chair next to her bed, she only noticed his foot resting on the edge of her mattress as she sat up, the movement waking him up as he had planned.  
  
"Ow." She whimpered looking down at her bandage-covered body and Knuckles glared at her darkly.  
  
"Don't give me that look Knuckles because you know I don't care." Tai said peeking under a bandage under he arm to check out the damage.  
  
"The fact that you don't seem to care is why I'm glaring at you." Knuckles growled.  
  
"Save it for someone who cares." She snapped back standing up.  
  
"No." Knuckles growled slamming her against a wall. "You must be completely out of your mind Tai, you could have been killed."  
  
"Well I'd rather die doing the right thing than be a coward, but you wouldn't understand that would you Knuckles?" She growled back at him.  
  
"There's a difference between doing the right thing and just taking revenge at the cost of your own life Tai!" The red echidna snapped back.  
  
"If it'd been real revenge I wanted I would have killed YOU instead." Tai said her voice icy.  
  
"I saved your life! Or are you forgetting that?!" Knuckles shouted so loud that the windows shook.  
  
"At the cost of my mother's! Robotnik might have pulled that trigger Knuckles but you killed her just as much as he did!" Tai shouted back.  
  
"There wasn't anything we could have done! You were ten for chaos' sake! He would have killed you, gotten the master emerald and killed millions and you know it." Knuckles said bitterly.  
  
"I would rather have died trying to save her than live knowing that you stopped me." Tai said hollowly, Knuckles' hands slid down her arms and he turned her back on her.  
  
"How could you do it Knuckles? How could you hold me there in that cupboard and stop me from trying to save her? How could you let me hear her get killed? I trusted you indefinitely and you betrayed me!" Tai screamed at him.  
  
"You would have died Tai, she told me to protect you and I did." Knuckles said coldly as he stared at the bed. Tai grabbed his shoulder and made him face her.  
  
"Tell me Knuckles, o great saviour, do I look saved? Do I look happy? Peaceful? Safe? No. You promised her those too, so don't give me that excuse, if you ever even gave a damn about me then tell me why you did it." Tai growled. Knuckles shivered even though it wasn't cold, what did he have to lose? She hated him anyway.  
  
"I... I was scared ok? I knew that if I let you go he'd kill you, I thought you mum would fight back or something, that she'd get away. I knew you wouldn't be able to and you would get killed. I couldn't bear to lost you, you were the only person who actually cared about me at all and I couldn't bear to lose you. But I did lose you. And you hate me." Knuckles said quietly. Tai's lips shook and her eyes filled with tears, lightning fast she grabbed a fistful of Knuckles' quills and pulled as hard as she could, Knuckles yelped as several quills ripped out.  
  
"You... you... you monster! How could you even...? I... I hate you with every ounce in my body!" She screamed at him and fled the room, the door bouncing on it's hinges as she slammed it.  
  
The red echidna slid to the floor, several of his dreadlocked quills unfurling themselves into a single red sheen of quills, tears ran silently down his face at the loss of half of his soul. 


End file.
